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EA gives away thousands of games by accident

Marsh Davies
Oct 15, 2012

Page 1 of 10

Gamers who participated in an Electronic Arts survey at the weekend were rewarded with a $20 Origin discount code. Or so EA presumably thought. Poor EA. In fact, the code worked for everyone, not just those who took part in the survey, and could be used to chug down an unlimited number of $20 games, all for free - a fact which was quickly publicised on
Reddit
and
Overclockers
.

Although the code only allowed one download per account, Redditors realised they could get two by using the code on both the website and within the Origin application. Then they realised they could get as many as they liked by deleting their cookies and trying again.

Not all games were up for grabs - it wouldn't work for Star Wars: The Old Republic, games released within a month of purchase and Valve games. Nonetheless, persistent users managed to snag
an impressive haul
.

Initially, an
Origin helpdesk representative
said that although anyone could use the code without being banned, the number of games downloaded per user might be audited and gluttonous gamers punished as a result. But since then, an
Origin community manager
has stated that EA will honour all the purchases made using this code, prior to the loophole being closed. Hooray! Christmas comes early.

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